Chapter 200: 200 debt collection operations
Chapter 200 200 Debt Collection Action
Marine traffic is not random. Although the sea seems to be endless, the routes are indeed numerous and fixed.
If you deviate from these routes, there will not be so many ships passing by, and you will be left alone in distress.
What is even more depressing is that if you leave these routes, you may encounter more pirates, encounter unexplored reefs, and be far away from the monsoon, which will affect the navigation of ships.
The Elf Poplar Kingdom has always been a naval power. They have better sailors and better ships, and they also have richer experience and a larger number of warships to maintain their lead.
Now is the season for returning home. Countless ships are sailing on the sea, and some fleets can even look at each other from head to tail.
These ships carry steel purchased from all over the world, as well as other materials, or directly carry gold coins, and return to the Yangmu Kingdom to revitalize the economy of the entire kingdom.
On a huge cargo ship, the sailor standing on the top of the sail squinted his eyes and saw a thick black smoke on the sea level.
He didn't know what it was, so he immediately lowered his head and shouted to the others at his feet: "Look over there! There is something approaching over there! What is that thing?"
The sailors on the deck did not understand the situation. They had not seen the black smoke because they were standing lower.
But soon, they already knew the direction of the strange thing, and they also noticed the billowing black smoke on the sea level, as well as two slender masts without sails.
“Where are their sails?” A sailor asked the old sailor beside him curiously when he saw the strange and fast-moving ship.
The old sailor shook his head. He didn't know why a ship could sail quickly on the sea without a sail.
“It’s coming!” On the mast, the sailor in charge of the lookout pointed at the strange ship in the distance and shouted loudly. Next to his ears, the flag of the huge Poplar Kingdom was fluttering in the wind.
"It's not a pirate, is it?" Behind the ship, the adjutant holding the steering wheel looked at the captain standing beside him.
The captain opened the monocular telescope and looked at the strange ship that was getting bigger and bigger on the sea level. He was unsure: "I don't know. It's the first time I've seen such a ship. It's also the first time I've seen such a ship." times… saw that flag.”
In his monocular telescope, the Datang Group warship flying the dragon flag was rushing toward them. Apparently, the other party had also discovered their whereabouts.
“But we have at least 10 armed merchant ships. Aren’t they looking for death if they come so close?” the adjutant looked forward and said with some uncertainty.
“It doesn’t look like they are looking for trouble. If they come so close, we will soon be surrounded... This doesn’t look like a naval battle.” The captain also replied doubtfully.
While they were guessing, on the bridge of the Bunas 1 battleship, the captain also put down the binoculars in his hand.
He looked at the officer beside him and ordered: "Sound the battle alarm! Notify all positions to enter combat status! Start aiming as soon as the main gun is loaded!"
"All artillery starts loading! Main gun aims!" The officer in charge of commanding the weapons approached the microphone and ordered loudly.
Following his order, in a small and closed space, a group of sailors skillfully pushed the prepared shells into the barrel and quickly closed the breech.
Then, the gunner responsible for aiming begins to control the gun and align the scale with the scale calculated by the optical sight.
Mechanical computers are a good thing. They appeared a hundred years before real computers, but they can replace computers to calculate rough artillery firing parameters.
This kind of thing was installed on almost all battleships before World War II. They can help shooters quickly calculate the angle of fire, and then allow them to control the artillery to hit the target as quickly as possible.
Despite this, it is still very difficult to hit a moving ship target at sea. Shooters often have to eject the target first, make a straddle shot, and then correct the shooting angle to complete the attack that may hit the opponent.
If the opponent makes a turn and gets rid of cross-fire aiming, then the parameters need to be reset and corrected again until the target is hit.
However, this was a case where both sides were firing from a distance of more than ten kilometers. Now the straight-line distance between Bunas 1 and the opponent's warship is no more than 10 kilometers.
Moreover, the Datang Group Navy, which has ironclad ships, has no intention of opening fire yet. They want to get closer to the target, and then show these poor elves that they are full of firepower.
"Sign up! Tell them that if they get closer, there is a risk of collision." Seeing the black strange ship getting closer and closer to him, the captain of the Poplar Kingdom ordered with caution.
After finishing speaking, he added: "Let all the sailors get ready and stand by at the gun positions! Get the gunpowder ready! At the same time, send a signal to the ships behind so that they are also ready to fight!"
“Got it!” A sailor walked to the back of the ship and began to wave the flag in his hand desperately to let the other party see his gesture clearly. Soon, the ships behind them also responded, speeding up their speed and opening the gun windows on both sides.
The elven warship headed by the leader also gave up its own route, and the two ships soon became a head-to-head state, assuming a posture of flanking the strange ship rushing towards them.
Cobunas 1 did not slow down, and even increased its speed to an extremely fast level of nearly 40 kilometers per hour, and the smoke from its two chimneys became thicker.
“The opponent’s speed is so fast!” Although it is not easy to calculate the speed of the oncoming ship, many sailors of the elves still discovered the problem.
Even if we are walking towards each other, the other party should not get close to this distance so quickly. But before they could be surprised, the opponent's strange ship couldn't hold back and opened fire.
Two oncoming cannonballs roared and smashed into pieces the bow of the leading Elf warship. The cannonball exploded just after smashing into the wooden shell of the ship, flying off the entire bow.
The long bow mast broke directly and was inserted into the sea water in front of it, and the speed of the entire battleship was instantly reduced to close to zero.
Because the explosion was so violent, the hull on the waterline turned into a pile of broken wooden boards, and the underwater part of the bow was completely broken into parts.
Seawater poured into the hull of the ship in an instant, swallowing up the cargo inside. Before the sailors in the cargo hold had time to scream, they were killed or knocked unconscious by the explosion, swept into the seawater, and sank into the deep seabed.
This armed merchant ship carried gold coins and some saltpeter. The cargo itself was not actually heavy, otherwise it would not have been possible for it to lead the group.
Even so, it was still half loaded, and soon the weight of the seawater and cargo began to pull it toward the depths of the sea.
To make matters worse, the second mast on the bow of the ship was also damaged by the explosion and broke under the force of the wind.
Just one look is all it takes to know that this armed merchant ship is doomed...
The captain and first officer, who were still preparing for battle at the stern of the ship, were knocked to the ground by the explosion. When they finally stood up, they found that the bow of their battleship had begun to sink.
Before they could figure out what was going on, they saw another armed merchant ship next to them begin to turn its rudder away from them.
Obviously, they would not be able to attack the strange ship directly in front of them if they did not get out of the way and expose the gun emplacements on the sides.
At this moment, they have also confirmed that the opponent is coming to attack them, and the opponent is a...battleship they have never seen before!
"Hurry! Hurry! There are gold coins in the cabin! A box of gold coins!" After finally standing up straight, the captain shouted loudly with an earthy face.
But the sailors on the deck were already panicking. Everyone ignored his orders and ran around like headless flies.
After all, there were more than 70 slaves on the ship. These people were not combat units and had not been trained. The sudden explosion caused them to completely riot.
"Damn!" the captain cursed, and then looked at the first mate: "Quick! Take people down! Rescue as much as you can! Gold! That gold!"
Just when he was in a mess, on another turning sailboat, the Elf captain's eyes widened and he looked at the bow of the black strange ship that was rushing over at high speed. A black device was slowly moving. of rotation.
As the thing slowly rotated, the two black tubes that had just spurted out fire began to rotate toward him little by little.
He knew they were two cannons, because he had just seen those two cannons firing. He also knew that these two cannons did not seem to be Cyric's cannons that he had seen, or that he was equipped with on his ship.
Just a few seconds later, while he was stunned, the two cannons fired again, firing shells at the ship he was on.
Then, the ground shook, the floor beneath his feet exploded, and countless sawdust chopped up his body.
Two shells directly hit the stern of the armed merchant ship, one shell exploded just behind the middle, and the other shell directly hit the watchtower of the ship.
As a result, the ship broke directly in the middle, and serious water intrusion occurred in the rear and middle...
The captain of the Yangmu Kingdom's armed merchant ship, which was hit first, was still trying to save the supplies he was carrying. This time he saw with his own eyes the entire process of the explosion on the side of his ship.
Now, he realized a problem - the opponent's combat power seemed to be beyond what they, armed merchant ships, could handle.
What made him even more desperate was that the distance between the two sides was thousands of meters, but the other side only fired 4 shots in total!
(End of this chapter)